La mort et le diable
A French review of AI-enhanced literature
Vox Day, essayiste américain vient de publier un recueil de nouvelles “Death and the Devil” (La mort et le diable). Je le recommande à tous mes lecteurs anglophones qui apprécient l’humour à la Terry Pratchett, et particulièrement son personnage de la Mort. Une œuvre qui prouve une fois de plus qu’avoir les idées claires sur le Bon, le Beau, le Vrai, aide grandement pour écrire de bons livres.
“Il est en train de perdre du terrain, répondit la Mort. Les anciennes obscurités sont en train de se dissiper et plus il dévoile son projet, plus son emprise sur l’humanité s’affaiblit.-C’est vrai, répondit saint Michel, il sent qu’une nouvelle ère est proche.” A noter que ce livre a été en partie rédigé en collaboration avec une IA. Un exemple intéressant de ce que cette technologie peut produire entre des mains inspirées.
Translation: Vox Day, an American essayist, has just published a collection of short stories entitled Death and the Devil. I recommend it to all my English-speaking readers who appreciate Terry Pratchett-style humor, especially his character Death. This work proves once again that having clear ideas about Good, Beauty, and Truth greatly helps in writing good books.
“He is losing ground,” replied Death. “The old obscurities are dissipating, and the more he reveals his plan, the weaker his hold on humanity becomes.“That’s true,” replied Saint Michael, “he senses that a new era is approaching.”It should be noted that this book was partly written in collaboration with AI. An interesting example of what this technology can produce in inspired hands.
One thing that DEATH AND THE DEVIL conclusively falsifies is the techno-laggard assertion that AI-enhanced literature is necessarily “AI slop”. And, in doing so, it is a historic book of sorts, in that it is an obvious harbinger of most literature of the future that is to come.



I bought the book and I'm liking what I've read so far.
On a more general note:
Would you and Jon ever post about the mechanics of how to use AI to write? I don't know if it's just me being obtuse, but I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to figure out.
All the pieces I've read have been great. Vox's work is characteristic. Collaborating with LLMs helps him modulate that characteristic. Can't wait for the physical copy!